tall and rhubarb

As the temperature gradually rose, the people in the yard gradually became restless.I originally planned to go out to grow some food after there were more frogs and birds outside and the number of insects was under control, but the reality was not as good as people imagined.

The more advanced creatures are, the harder they will be hit when the blue sunlight comes, and a large number of birds will die. Although birdsong can be heard from time to time, compared to the densely packed insects outside, the number is so small that it can be ignored Excluding.When men go out to collect food, they can often see bugs eating frogs, mice, snakes, and birds. It seems that there is nothing they don't eat. Maybe they will soon learn to eat people.

The most worrying thing is the ants outside the village. Their number has gotten out of control, and they are extending their sphere of influence to their yards.Now men go out every evening, in addition to looking for food, they also look for ant nests. As long as they find them, they put some dry firewood and hay near the ant nests, light a fire, and catch as many ants as possible while they are running around. How many, sometimes I come across a large ant nest, and there are so many ants that I can use a broom to sweep it.

Chen Yuzhen has developed a new dish. The people in the yard call it spiced ants. In fact, it is dry-fried ants with cinnamon star anise. The fried ants are crispy and fragrant, and adults often keep them as snacks for children.Although ants are very dangerous, they are also a delicious dish if caught back.Most people nowadays are used to it. Either people eat bugs, or people are eaten by bugs. Everyone knows which one to choose between eating and being eaten.

Just eating insects and vegetables is far from enough for the human body. Insects are rich in protein, but have little fat. Although fat has been hated and feared by humans for a long time because it will make people fat, it does It is also an integral part of the human body.

Life without meat is very difficult, the most prominent manifestation is that the stomach becomes very hungry, including Gao Chang's family who go out to catch snakes and beat teeth every now and then.The bamboo forest at the back of their yard was probably frequented by Gao Chang and the others, and the number of bamboo-leaf green snakes was not very large.

After a period of training, Gao Chang is now an expert at catching snakes. Once he stands in the forest and moves his ears slightly, he can tell which direction there is a snake. When a bamboo leaf falls, the head will be gone.These days, there are fewer and fewer snakes caught in the woods. Gao Chang even considered whether to take it easy and wait for the little snakes to grow up before catching and eating them. However, after considering the nearby villagers, he finally put this idea cancelled.

When Gao Chang returned to the yard, he took out a green bamboo leaf about three or two in weight and handed it to Zheng Rixin who helped him put up the ladder.When people in the yard are not moving around, they put the ladder away to prevent anything from climbing into the yard along the ladder. The bamboo ladder for entering and leaving the yard is made very strong, correspondingly relatively heavy, almost as tall as Every day, he has to trouble the people in the yard to put up the ladder for him alone, and it is also appropriate to pay some hard work.

Zheng Rixin lived with his wife and son in the living room of their yard, and they had almost enough food in the past, but fortunately, their family was small, and although their life was not very good, they could barely survive.

I lit a brazier alone in the yard, peeled and washed the snakes, put them on the fire and roasted them slowly, the children in the yard quickly gathered around, but Gao Chang didn't seem to care about what they were eating After a while, it slowly dispersed.There are still one or two, squatting on the edge and swallowing saliva persistently, and Gao Chang ignores them. He and Dahuang Miaozi couldn't eat enough of the few snakes caught tonight, and there was nothing left to share with others.

In fact, Gao Chang and the others are not the only ones who want to catch snakes and eat them. Sometimes when they encounter cauliflower snakes outside, the men beat them back and eat them without even thinking about it.Bamboo leaf green is not very many people who dare to attack them. These snakes are covered in green and hide in the bamboo forest, so they are not easy to be found. Moreover, they are quite aggressive now, and their poison is much stronger than before.

A while ago, two people entered the bamboo forest in the courtyard at the end of the stream, trying to catch some snakes to eat back, but they found them. The two of them killed one together, but only one man came out of the bamboo forest alive. The other was bitten for some unknown reason, and passed out at that time. His companion said that he was already dead, and he just ran for his life.

Later, the people from the yard came and asked Gao Chang to go into the bamboo forest and get out the bug-covered corpse.Regardless of whether the man died after being poisoned by the snake at that time, he was completely dead anyway. Now a person who can't move and stays in the wild has no chance of surviving.

Gao Chang roasted the snake meat slowly, sprinkled salt while roasting, the stomach of Rhubarb next to him was rumbling, and Miao Zai's stomach was rumbling too.In fact, Gao Chang’s stomach is also hungry, but as a human being, after a period of exploration, he already knows how to shrink his abdomen so that the stomach will not make a sound when it squirms and bubbles. This is related to a man’s decency. .

There is a lot of grain in Gaochang’s cellar, but most of them are canned food, such as canned meat and canned fish. It used to be good to eat, but now I still feel that I don’t feel hungry, and it’s incomparable with fresh meat.These days, the common dream in everyone’s heart is a big bowl of oily braised pork, fat or thin, it’s better to be fat or thin, with more salt and soy sauce, and a strong taste...

Meowzai just ate a bit of the snake's internal organs, but that was obviously not enough for him to eat. The most frustrating thing for the cat is that it has been a long time since he could snatch the snake from Gao Chang's hands. Usually, as long as there is a snake in the bamboo forest If there is any abnormal movement, Gao Chang will catch the prey before it.Sometimes Miaozai finally finds a goal that is different from Gaochang, but he is often preempted by Rhubarb. As a cat, it also feels frustrated.After Da Huang caught a snake, he always slapped his head, and then gave it to Gao Chang. This guy never eats alone.

Of course, Meowzai’s food is not only snake meat, but also various insects. Sometimes he can catch birds, and occasionally a mouse or two.The ditches around this yard were dug too deep, so few mice can come in from the outside at present. The original residents of those litters were either eaten by cats, or found out by people in the yard and fired.

The first batch of snake meat was grilled, Gao Chang ate a piece by himself, handed a piece to Dahuang, and then took a small piece from the raw snake meat on the plate to feed Meow, this cat doesn’t like cooked food very much, and he doesn’t like it too much. I like table salt.

There was a child squatting opposite the brazier, Gao Chang raised his eyes to look at him, and continued to eat his own.At this moment, a woman cursed in the yard.

"Still squatting there to die? I have called you hundreds of times, telling you to go to the hall, why don't you go?"

"Why do you stare at people for eating meat? Can you eat meat if you stare at others? If you give food to cats and dogs, you won't eat it. What are you, are you someone else's cat or dog?"

"Get up quickly, you can eat, eat, and eat with just two eyes, and you won't die if you eat it!"

"..."

It was not the first time that Sang scolded Huai, and Gao Chang didn't want to talk to her.Because they can get meat to eat, most of the people in the yard are still kind to Gao Chang, like Zheng Rixin, who occasionally helps to set up a ladder, buys some food, and goes back to give his wife and children a tooth-beating sacrifice.But there are also some people who are full of hatred for him, just like the peasant class hates Huang Shiren, although Gao Chang has never collected anyone's rent.

Gao Chang waved to the child who was squatting not far away and still refused to move. The six or seven-year-old boy came over without thinking, and he didn't take his mother's yelling seriously at all.Gao Chang handed him a piece of grilled snake slices: "Try it, will it kill you?"

"I can't die from eating it." The child stuffed the snake meat into his mouth in one gulp, chewing while breathing out. Many kids in the yard were older than him, and everyone didn't want snake meat today, so he didn't stuff it into his mouth and ate it now. , It might be robbed after a while.

"Then go back and tell your mother not to talk nonsense." Gao Chang patted the child on the back of the head and sent him away.

Life is not easy for anyone now, and some women are very angry. It's no fun arguing with them at this time, and it's no fun to lose or win.

The temperature has risen, but they can't sow because of too many bugs outside, and the grain in their yard is becoming increasingly scarce.As a result, frequent quarrels began to occur in this courtyard, most of which were related to food.Some people didn't live in the village before, so naturally they didn't store food. After returning to the village, they either ate their parents, brothers and sisters, or borrowed food from others.

The situation of eating parents is relatively better, but if the family is not the only child, quarrels often occur.It's not so easy to eat the food of brothers and sisters. When things are good, it's okay to say, but now everyone can't even support their own children, so how can they control others? Brothers and sisters have their own families, isn't it someone else?

Borrowing other people's food is even more difficult. Since last autumn, if you have been borrowing food to eat, now everyone owes hundreds of catties of food, and you must pay back what you borrow, but look at the current situation. Given the situation here, where do they get food to return?When the rice vats in the creditors' homes gradually bottomed out, they began to press for debts in various forms, and they refused to stop until they took out the last rations of the other party.

During this period of time, almost every household has had troubles, either in their own house, because life is difficult, and the mood is irritable, and it is inevitable that there will be bickering, or with others, which can be divided into many situations.For example, Uncle Ashan's family next door to Gao Chang also had a fight with someone, and it was so big that there was blood.

The reason is that Zheng Guolin's son, Zheng Zongming, stole eggs from the chicken coop in their yard for several days. At the beginning, he didn't know who it was. Later, Zheng Guoxi and Gong Jian set up an ambush, and finally caught him When he was upright, he turned around and went to their house, and Uncle Ashan and Aunt Ashan also went.

But Zheng Zongming's parents, Zheng Guolin and his wife, are not easy-going lamps. Obviously their son was arrested, and it must be said that it was a misunderstanding. How could Uncle Ashan and the others agree? They were all taken away by him for several days. The eggs are gone, and at this time, they have to pay for everything they say.It became serious as I said it, and then I even started to move my hands. Zheng Zongming is also a master who dares to bite. He rushed to hit Zheng Guoxi, but was pushed by Gong Jian next to him, knocking his head on the steps. , immediately bleeding.

This is a terrible situation, Zheng Guolin and his wife are relentlessly chasing Uncle Ashan and the others to pay for food, Uncle Ashan naturally cannot agree.In the end, the quarrel ended without a problem. Uncle Ashan did not compensate Zheng Guolin's family for food, and Zheng Guolin did not compensate Uncle Ashan's family for eggs, but the relationship between the two families was settled.

This person was forced to a certain level, and his sense of shame gradually faded. There were several households whose eggs were stolen in the yard, and Zheng Zongming was not the only egg thief.Once, Gao Chang saw with his own eyes a child in their yard secretly took eggs from someone else’s house. After the child took the eggs, he turned around and saw Gao Chang was looking straight at him, grabbed the eggs and ran away. After seeing Gao Chang for a long time, he would go around and walk around. At that time, Gao Chang grilled snake meat, but he didn't dare to come over to ask for it.

Gao Chang usually turns a blind eye to the small actions of these people in the yard. What he has seen in his previous life is a hundred times crueler than these.There are so many people in the city, the blue sun appears, some people go back, some people choose to stay in the city, those who choose to go back may not be able to really go back to their hometown, and those who choose to stay, will always There will be some who will disappear silently among the strange crowd.

The community where Gao Chang lived in the past, the population has been decreasing since the appearance of the blue sun. Some people died in accidents while looking for food, some died of illness and starvation, and some people couldn’t say anything. The cause of death was cleared, and they didn't even see the body. They went out to find food together yesterday, but today they didn't see anyone.And that temporary collective, who would really care about the life and death of others?Everyone chose to remain silent, not to delve into it.

At least in this courtyard, no malicious injuries have occurred so far, only a few eggs were stolen. Everyone in the courtyard knows each other, so who dares to be too unscrupulous.

But no one dared to touch the eggs in Gao Chang's chicken coop, maybe because everyone knew Gao Chang had a gun, or maybe because Rhubarb looked too scary.But even if no one steals their eggs, the eggs laid by the three hens of Gao Chang’s family are still not enough. The bran is not much to eat, the three old hens of Gao Chang's family can only peck at some rotten vegetable stalks, and it is rare to lay two eggs a day.

Eggs don't have much oil and water, but everyone knows that the old hen is full of oil and water, but no one is willing to kill it.After Gao Chang had a full stomach, he fed some food to his own hens, took out the only egg that day from the chicken coop, and then went back to the house with Rhubarb and Miaozai.

Gao Chang felt that maybe he should go to the mountain. If he was lucky, he might even meet a wild boar. With his current skills, it would be no problem to deal with a wild boar.But the pine caterpillars all over the mountains and plains are really annoying, there are so many of them that it is impossible to hide.

Gao Chang sat cross-legged on the bed and meditated, and Da Huang was also cross-legged beside him. This guy has been a little silent recently. Is it the rebellious period?Gao Chang couldn't help but miss the big dog that was chased all over the mountain with him.

After a while, Miaozai came back from a stroll outside, and jumped onto the bed. Rhubarb opened his eyes slightly, and swept over with his tail. Before he had time to stand still, Rhubarb's paw greeted him.Miaozai fell on the floor and rolled a few times, stood up shaking the ashes off his body, continued to jump on the bed, and was photographed down again and again.

For this, Gao Chang has long been used to it. Since the wire was removed for Miao Zai, Gao Chang didn’t shut it up to sleep in the cellar. The purpose of raising a cat is to catch mice, so it’s not a problem to shut it up all day. , So he spread soft old clothes in a cardboard box and let Meowzai sleep in it.

But the sad thing is that for some reason, this kitten has fallen in love with Gao Chang's bed. It probably can't understand why the three of them usually move together, but when they are sleeping, they are sleeping together. Can't sleep with them.From this point of view, the three of them really should sleep together. Are all beings equal? ​​There is no reason why Gao Chang and Da Huang can sleep in bed, but Miao Zai can only sleep in a cardboard box.

But can anyone explain to this kitten that it is actually Gao Chang and Da Huang's husband and wife bed?